The Bookstore Girl
by bluebirdeyes
Summary: Lucy is infatuated with the pretty girl she keeps seeing at the bookstore every weekend at the same time, but they've never talked. All she needs is a little (literal) push. Levy/Lucy meet-cute. Oneshot.


**A/N: There was a post with several bookstore AU prompts going around on Tumblr, and one of them was just _so_ Levy and Lucy that I had to do it. It's short and sweet, and a departure from my usual NaLu, but ****I hope you enjoy nonetheless!**

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"Is that her?" Natsu whispered, glancing obviously over Lucy's shoulder.

"Yeah," Lucy said. "That's her."

Lucy came to this bookstore every day. She spent hours in here, using it like a library before making some horrible purchase that definitely did _not_ fit into her budget, but she couldn't help it. She just loved reading.

Spending so much time here, it was only natural that she started to recognize some of the other regulars. And there was one regular in particular that kept catching her eye: a short, blue-haired woman with bright eyes and wide hips. Over the past two months, Lucy had slowly realized that this girl came in every Saturday at the same time, and Lucy made sure she was always there to catch a glimpse.

"She really is wearing a headband," Natsu noted. As Lucy's best friend, Natsu had the privilege of hearing about all her crushes and passing infatuations. Bookstore Girl was a frequent subject of those conversations these days.

"It's really embarrassing that you actually remember so many details," Lucy muttered.

"Well you talk about her every weekend," Natsu said.

"Yeah, but what if she hears you? That would be so embarrassing."

"It's not weird to talk about people you've met; she wouldn't think anything of it."

"Except we've never actually _met_ ," Lucy said.

"What do you mean?"

Lucy waved her hand to signal for Natsu to lower his voice. The girl was just on the other end of the bookshelf, and definitely within hearing distance if she was paying attention. "Shh, she might hear you. I mean that I've never actually talked to her."

"But you see her every week."

"Yeah. I see her. She probably doesn't see me."

Natsu frowned. "So…you're stalking her?"

"No! Natsu!" Lucy pushed his arm loosely in indignation.

"What? That's what you just said!"

"No it's not! I come here every weekend anyways! Come on, you know this. I've told you like a dozen times."

"Yeah, I only half listen."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Of course you do."

"Hey, I'm here as moral support, so why don't you go say hi now?"

Lucy's heart just about stopped at the suggestion. "No, that's weird." Not to mention she wasn't mentally prepared to do something like that. She was normally pretty good at talking to strangers, but not when she had a weird crush-from-afar on said stranger.

"How is it weird? Just compliment her headband or something."

"I did that last week," Lucy said defensively.

"So you _have_ talked to her."

"Just…just the once though."

A grin pulled at Natsu's lips. "See? You already have an in. Compliment her headband again."

"No, that's weird, I said."

" _You're_ weird."

"You're really helping, Natsu," Lucy droned sarcastically.

"I'm being your wingman."

"Some wingman," Lucy grumbled, turning back to the bookshelves in front of her. Her fingertips drifted across the sleek spines as she frowned. She'd never successfully hit on a girl before. Natsu's suggestion was tempting, and he was right about being moral support because she did feel a little better with him with her, but that didn't do anything to ease her inhibitions.

Lucy was suddenly nervous. She'd never successfully hit on a girl before.

Men were easy. Straight men already had a tendency to think a girl was interested in them if she so much as blinked in their direction, so male attention was not something Lucy had to try very hard for. One mildly flirty smile, and she'd find out right away if he was interested. But women were the opposite; women always thought Lucy was just being friendly, and in the end she would get embarrassed and quit.

A sudden shove from the side sent her stumbling.

"Natsu!" she hissed at the retreating back of her giggling friend. He was _not_ helping.

But it was too late to escape now. Thanks to Natsu's little stunt, she was right next to the pretty girl, who had looked up when Lucy came falling her way. Lucy met her gaze nervously. Ohgodohgod.

"Uh. Hello," she said, inwardly cringing.

The girl seemed surprised. "Hi."

"That's, um, that's a really good book," Lucy said, recognizing the cover. She'd read that very book in this store last week, and loved it to pieces.

The girl looked at the novel in her hands. "You've read it? I keep seeing good things about it so I thought I'd check it out."

Lucy smiled, relaxing a little. Book talk was something she could do. Maybe it wasn't the most seductive of topics, but it was one she knew well. And wasn't that why she was interested in this girl in the first place? Because she was pretty and had good taste in books?

"The blurb on the back is actually misleading," Lucy said. "It makes it seem like the story has romance between the leads, but that's not true at all. They're just really good friends. The book actually does a really good job with both racial and gender diversity; I've heard almost no complaints about how those aspects of it are handled, which it's unfortunate that that's such a revolutionary thing in literature these days, but it really is a great step forward.

"But the real kicker is the plot," she said. "Oh my god, the plot. Again, the blurb doesn't do it justice. It makes it sound like it's cliché, run-of-the-mill young adult dystopia, but it's so much more than that."

Lucy continued to give her full review, avoiding spoilers as best she could. None of her other friends were big readers, so she'd only had the internet to talk to about the book. And even if she had to work to avoid spoiling the story for this girl, she was just glad to have someone to talk to about what had instantly become her new favorite novel as of a week ago when she first read it.

But as she began circling around to talking about the plot's subversion of overused tropes after going on a tangent about the diverse characters, a dark blush painted her cheeks.

Lucy suddenly realized she'd been talking for a really, really long time.

She stopped herself. "Oh god, I went on forever, didn't I? Well, at least now you have a full review." She laughed nervously as if that would help at all. She'd screwed up _so_ bad.

But surprisingly, the girl only giggled, a light and pleasant sound. "I don't mind at all," she said. "I want to read it even more now. You seemed so excited talking about it that I can't help but get excited, too."

Lucy smiled in relief. "That's good to hear. It really is a great book."

"Your partner's been standing outside for a while now and he's starting to look bored," she noted.

Lucy turned around, surprised to see Natsu's pink head through the bookstore window. "He's still here?" she said. "I thought he would've gone home by now."

"Are you trying to get rid of him?" the girl said, concern creeping into her voice.

"Oh, no, he's my best friend," Lucy said quickly. "He's just not much of a book person, and he knows how I can go on for hours. Normally he wouldn't bother waiting around once I got started." Then it hit Lucy like a brick. She gasped. "Oh no. We were going to celebrate our friend's birthday after this. What time is it?"

The girl checked her watch. "Almost six o'clock."

Lucy groaned. "Oh man, I made us late." And Erza would kill them.

"You should hurry then," the girl said.

Lucy hesitated. She'd just talked this girl's ear off and made no suggestions of romantic intent whatsoever. To make a move now would be sudden and weird. And she really did have to hurry or she would be even more dead than she already was. But she had to at least try, right? Natsu was supporting her and everything. Lucy couldn't let him down; she had to give this a proper shot. She would, for the first time ever, properly hit on a girl.

"Sooooo would you want to go out sometime once you've read the book? Then we can both talk about it instead of just me rambling on by myself."

"That actually sounds great," the girl said, smiling. "I don't have many bookworm friends, so I could use a book buddy."

It was happening again. She couldn't let herself back out. Not this time. Not with the bookstore girl of all people.

She took a deep breath. "We could…I could take you to dinner, or something."

"That'd be nice."

"So…it's a date?"

The girl's face suddenly flushed. "Oh," she said. " _Oh_."

Lucy felt her cheeks get even hotter, if that was possible. The girl bit her lip, then look down at her hands. Lucy braced herself for rejection.

But then she looked up, a smile in her eyes. "Yeah. Sure. I would like that."

A huge smile split Lucy's face, cheeks tugging upwards as if they had a mind of their own.

She'd done it. She'd properly asked a girl out on a date, and she actually got a _yes_. And a girl this cute too. And a fellow book-lover. She would die at Erza's hands later, but she would die happy.

"I'm Lucy, by the way," Lucy said, realizing they'd never made their proper introductions.

"Levy," the girl said.

Lucy smiled. "It's a pretty name."

"I love your name, too. It has such a pleasant meaning."

"I've actually never heard yours before. Where did it come from, if you don't mind my asking?"

Levy glanced over Lucy's shoulder. "Don't you have a something to go to?"

"Right."

"We can talk more when you take me out to dinner," Levy said, laughing. "My name actually has a really great story behind it. This might be weird, but you're in a rush, so just…call or message me later?" She handed Lucy a business card, which Lucy took with both hands. At the top in silver script was the name _Levy McGarden_ , and beneath it, _HR Management, Magnolia Press_. She worked for a publisher? Could this girl get any more wonderful?

All these good things at once made Lucy a little nervous — what if she later found out that Levy wasn't as wonderful as first impressions made her out to be? — but more than her nervousness, she was over the moon. She'd finally talked to the bookstore girl, and now they were going on a date.

"Thank you," Lucy said, unable to suppress her smile. "I'll call you later."

"Uhh, Lucy?" Natsu's head poked into the bookstore. "I don't know if you remember we had something to do after this, but—"

"I know, I know, I'm coming," Lucy snapped. "It was nice meeting you, Levy."

"Yeah," Levy said, smiling. "You too."

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 **A/N:** **Thanks for reading!**


End file.
